Teaching Identity

Events

Braddah

January 30 2004

Ever since my brother has been a part of the family I found myself teaching him all sorts of skills. How to walk, talk, talk back to our parents, all that kind of stuff. He is really my inspiration for choosing teaching as my career. If all the students that come through my classroom can leave with a little bit of "Colin" in them, then I think they will all grow to be great people.

Taekwondo

August 2010

I practiced and taught Taekwondo through the middle school and beginning of high school. It never really occurred to me that I was teaching in any sort of form. To me, I was just showing the lower belts what to do, how to do it, and why we do it. However, upon refection on my background in teaching, this was a big point for me. This is where I learned how to control my voice and I also learned when to help and when to back off so they could help themselves.

Church

2011

My mother is very Catholic so she put me through confirmation classes in high school, actually my whole life. But high school confirmation classes was when I really started refining myself and developing my voice for public speech.

"That" Teacher

August 2011

In high school I became close with my freshman year physical science teacher (shoutout to Mr. Wendorff). Although I was no good at science, he was that one teacher that saw something in me. He gave me opportunities to prove myself, he let me sit in the back of his class when I was having a bad day, he gave me my first job at the gelato shop he owned, and he even encouraged me through my freshman year of University

AP British Literature (dun dun dun)

August 2014

I once had an AP teacher in high school, Mrs. Rosario, who (I have to admit) I didn't learn really anything deep about British literature besides Shakespeare. However, she did make English an enjoyable class, she made me look at teaching a little bit different from then on, and I hope to bring joy to my future classroom like how she did to me.

C.O.P.

July 2015

I was sitting in a sort of "get ahead" summer program class. It was a creative writing course and the professor had just given me back my paper saying that I was exceptionally good at writing. I then went on to text my high school AP British Literature teacher (shoutout to Mrs. Rosario) that because of what my summer professor said, and how encouraging she was for me in high school, I decided to become an English teacher.

Working with the kids

May 2017

I found out that I wanted to work with middle school kids when I started working at the YMCA over their summer program. My boyfriend suggested that I try it out since he knows that high school was a pretty traumatic experience for me. So I started my work with the middle school group and I'm still working there today!

Candace Fujikane

August 2017

I had the pleasure of taking one of Professor Fujikane's class last semester. She has probably been one of the best professors that I've had at the University of Hawaii. Finding a balance between connecting with the students but still being able to teach us the curriculum. I even kept her syllabus because I loved her class so much and hope to be able to frame my future syllabus around hers.

ITE Orientation

January 6 2018

This day was the day I really became excited about becoming a teacher. Hearing the philosophies and encouragement by my peers and by the professors was so up-lifting. Prior to the orientation I was very on-the-fence about becoming a teacher. However, after being in an environment like that,I'm very much excited about my teaching journey and I definitely know that it will never end!